Referring to a musical work of the century such as George Gershwin's popular opera "Porgy and Bess" entails enormous risks. This is especially the case when this popular work has spawned many ubiquitous song classics. Hans Ludemann also believes: "You have to have a good reason to tackle this" and, of course, a coherent concept for a new, own approach. This has succeeded brilliantly with "Porgy's Dream". The very personal homage of Ludemann and trumpeter Reiner Winterschladen is not content with competent interpretations in the usual jazz style. The duo is based on selected themes and unfolds an intense atmosphere in it's freely interpreted pieces, which thoroughly lives up to the original work.
Maynard Ferguson - With His Own Bands: Early Years 1954-57 / Canadian jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson was something of a prodigy as a youngster, playing solos with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Orchestra broadcasts when he was 13 years old, and was always destined for a career in music, training at the Conservatoire in Montreal until 1948. He moved to the USA and played with the bands of Boyd Raeburn, Jimmy Dorsey and Charlie Barnet before joining Stan Kenton for an extended stint in the early '50s. The recordings featured here represent his first forays into recording leading his own bands. This 43-track 2-CD collection comprises all the titles (excluding one which could not be included for reasons of space) from his albums on the Emarcy label "The Maynard Ferguson Octet", "Dimensions", "Around the Horn with Maynard Ferguson" and "Boy with Lots of Brass", with line-ups ranging from an octet to a 13-piece big band. It features many original compositions, with a number by tenor saxophonist and arranger Bill Holman, along with arrangements of classic Songbook standards, with the musicians involved including Bud Shank, Shelly Manne, Milt Bernhart, Herb Geller, Georgie Auld, Red Callender, Nino Tempo, Ray Linn, Bill Holman, Ray Brown, Alvin Stoller, Bobby Timmons, Larry Bunker and many more. It's an intriguing and entertaining insight into his work as he leads his own bands on record for the first time
For his fifth Criss Cross recording, Alex Sipiagin assembles a top-shelf quintet of generational peers, all colleagues who rank at the top of the pack on their respective instruments, to play a program of original music. The mood is melodic, polyphonic, rhythmically intense, more simmering than fiery, defined by Sipiagin's burnished, golden sound, the individualistic voice-like statements of tourist Seamus Blake and guitarist Adam Rogers, and the intuitive accompaniment of bassist Scott Colley and drummer Antonio Sanchez.
As he has done on his three previous Criss Cross dates, Russian trumpeter Alex Sipiagin brings together a cohort of New York's finest - here reedmen Chris Potter and David Binney, keyboardist David Kikoski, bassist Scott Colley, and drummer Gene Jackson - to perform on "Equilibrium." Comprising seven stimulating Sipiagin originals, a Monk tune and a bossa, the album features not only the ensemble interplay and virtuosic soloing we've come to expect from Sipiagin's albums, but also several tunes on which the trumpeter brings his rich imagination and ravishing tone to the forefront.
25-year-old trumpeter Jeremy Pelt has garnered notice for his superb charts and professionalism since landing in New York four years ago. "Insight," his Criss Cross debut, demonstrates that he's also a composer with a point of view. Helping him articulate it are a take-no-prisoners ensemble of New York's finest callers, all 30-and-under, with the exception of veteran drum avatar Ralph Peterson. Features tenor saxophonist Jimmy Greene, alto saxophonist Myron Walden, pianist Rick German son and bassist Vincente Archer.
This is Russian trumpet star Alex Sipiagin's third outing on Criss Cross. This time, as before, in the company of a group of New York jazz greats: tourist Seamus Blake and guitarist Adam Rogers plus a rhythm section consisting of piano star David Kikoski, bassist Boris Kozlov and drummer Jonathan Blake. Listen to the beautiful rendition of "Holland," a piece composed and arranged by Sipiagin and dedicated to bassist Dave Holland. The CD offers five Sipiagin originals and one Charles Mingus composition, "Tijuana Gift Shop".
New York-based trumpeter plays w. fire & authenticity; his tunes on this debut represent the essence of modern mainstream jazz, feat. Eric Alexander, Larry Goldings, Dwayne Burno, Billy Drummond. (Previously deleted 4/1/12. Original release date: 3/18/97)
Surrounded by his colleagues from the notorious sextet collective One for All (Eric Alexander, Steve Davis, David Hazeltine & others), trumpeter/flugelhornist reaffirms his charter membership in the no-holds-barred society of improvisers.
Moments Captured is trumpeter Alex Sipiagin's third Criss Cross date to feature a three-horn lineup, after Equilibrium in 2004 and Destinations Unknown in 2011. While the earlier discs featured David Binney on alto, here it is the fiery Will Vinson displaying his prodigious talents alongside the leader and master tenorist Chris Potter. Rounding out the lineup on this exploratory all-original session are the players from Sipiagin's 2015 album Balance 35/58: John Escreet on piano and keyboards, Matt Brewer on bass, and Eric Harland on drums. The intricate, polyphonic aspect of Sipiagin's writing continues to flower and grow, but it is Escreet's extensive use of the Prophet 6 synthesizer that marks this album's biggest departure. Wringing a seemingly limitless array of tonal colors from the instrument, Escreet gives Sipiagin's music a refreshing and wholly unpredictable edge.
Trumpeter Alex Sipiagin's ninth Criss Cross album may be his most conceptually ambitious. The 43-year-old trumpeter is these days garnering broad international recognition as a solo artist, as well as for his inspired virtuoso playing in various Dave Holland and Mingus Orchestra, offers seven original pieces - performed by a distinguished band of A-listers - that contain heady polyphony, substantial melodies, beautiful voicings, and intoxicating rhythms. It's a cutting edge of the 21st century jazz. The band: Chris Potter, tenor sax and flute; David Binney, alto sax; Craig Taborn, piano and fender rhodes; Boris Koslov, bass; and Eric Harland, drums.
On his sixth session as a leader for Criss Cross Jazz, One for All trumpeter Jim Rotondi pushes the hard bop envelope, broadening the music's horizons with a new quintet that utilizes veteran vibraphonist Steve Nelson in place of the usual piano. Criss Cross. 2006.
With Generations, his eighth Criss Cross outing as a leader, trumpeter Alex Sipiagin honors the legacy of the great Woody Shaw, with five stellar pieces from Shaw's repertoire and balancing the program with four originals. The quartet lineup here Sipiagin, guitarist Adam Rogers, bassist Boris Kozlov, drummer Antonio Sanchez at one time formed the core of the brilliant Michael Brecker Sextet. Together, these four players bring years worth of mutual collaborative experience to the music at hand. Woody Shaw himself appeared just once on Criss Cross, lending his extraordinary horn voice to Introducing Kenny Garrett (CRC 1014) in 1985. Shaw's influence has long been implicit in Sipiagin's playing - not only in the Russian-born trumpeter's work as a leader, but also in his scorching solos with Dave Holland's Big Band and Octet, the Mingus Big Band, the late Michael Brecker's Sextet and Quindectet and many more. With Generations Sipiagin makes his debt to Shaw more explicit, but he approaches these canonical works with his own individuality and imagination foremost in mind, in the determined spirit of Shaw's song title: Beyond All Limits.
For his sixth Criss Cross release, trumpeter Alex Sipiagin focuses more heavily on his own writing than on 2005's Returning. Clearly rooted in the jazz tradition, Sipiagin's compositions continue to evolve his distinctly modernistic approach to harmony, meter and form. Eminently approachable despite their inherent depth and complexity, Sipiagin's five compositions remain as focused and lyrical as his playing. Sipiagin reinvents Thelonious Monk's Epistrophy and Bill Evans' rarely covered Orbit (Unless It's You), both seamlessly fitting within his musical universe while remaining true to their essence. Prints is a definitive statement from an artist whose star continues to rise.
By titling his eighth Criss Cross album Over Here!, trumpeter Jim Rotondi picks up on the sentiments he signified with The Move, his seventh for the label. "It doesn't necessarily mean moving somewhere else, but rather returning home, playing tunes with a lot of straight-ahead swing and interesting chord sequences with guys I'm comfortable with, " Rotondi stated in the liner notes I wrote for that kinetic 2009 recital. The Album was recorded May 10, 2023 at the Artesuono Recording Studio in Udine (Italy). Recording engineer Mike Marciano did the editing, mixing and mastering at Systems Two in NY. Photography by Mauro Cionci
'Don Cherry, more than any other artist in the jazz of his era, pioneered the music's internationalist nature that has now come to be commonly accepted as an integral part of it's character. The individuality of Cherry's contribution to the history of jazz has often been unfairly obscured by his admittedly important association with the music of Ornette Coleman. While the (pocket) trumpeter's position as Coleman's front line partner in the altoist's first revolutionary quartet was indeed a major one, Cherry's role as one of the founders of the genre that is known today as 'world music' is equally significant. - Russ Musto Featured Artists Don Cherry-trumpet Gato Barbieri-sax Karl Berger-vibes Aldo Romano-drums Bo Steif-bass.
This long awaited CD presents over a dozen previously unissued masters of surprisingly high quality from the premier artist on the American Music label, Bunk Johnson. Digital technology made it possible to remove the reasons - often not musical - that they were not issued at the time, seventy years ago. The venues for the recording sessions varied between the legendary 1944 sound of the San Jacinto Hall to the homes of Bertha Gonsoulin in San Francisco and George Lewis in New Orleans. The 16 page booklet includes rare images, a history of the San Jacinto Club and a detailed discography.
